What bullet?
by KatieandLau
Summary: just read it lol.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue  
**_Picture a building- a school actually. You walk across the sandy pink bricked patio  
and up to the main circular doors which lead you into a half-circle reception, with a window  
where you can see into the receptionists' office and another set of huge glass doors which lead you to the centre point of the school._

In the centre of the room is an achievements cabinet, full of awards and recognitions that the school has gained with many photographs of successful teenagers doing amazing things, like winning a sport, or singing in a show.

You can either go left, where you'll enter a corridor which makes you feel like the world is your oyster, each classroom regurgitating a foreign language, be it German, Spanish or French

…or you can continue to walk forwards and then take the next right, which will lead you into an amazing sports hall…or you can step outside onto probably the most professional and equipped sports field you've ever seen, which could make the most unsporty of students motivated to go for a run.

If not then you can wonder into the last corridor on the left, which brings you to technology…Design technology, Wood technology or Food technology. Take your pick. 

_If you don't like left, from the centre point of the school you could go right, which takes you to a fully equipped Drama Studio, a computer room or a music corridor…Or if you backtrack and wonder diagonal of the achievement cabinet, you'll find yourself in a Dance Studio full of atmosphere and modern music with one wall fully lined with mirrors. _

_If you don't like right, then you can go up.  
Up brings you to a cushy library  
Up brings to you a creative English corridor  
Up brings you to an intellectual Maths corridor  
Up brings you to a colourful art corridor  
Up brings you to a second computer room  
Up brings you to an experimental, cutting edge Science room _

_Now enter the school again and decide which way to turn… _

_Decided? _

_What about if I tell you that there's 5 gunmen on a shooting spree on the loose, it's rumoured that they've come from the local college_

_Still confident with your option? _

_Are you 100% certain that they __**won't **__go in the direction you plan to go_

_I hope that works out for you _

_See you when you get out…Maybe _

**Chapter One: See you, maybe. **

"You promise me that you'll stay here…I'll never forgive you if you move…" I warned my little sister as I signalled for her to stay put on the school field, along with the majority of Year 7's.  
As panicked and unsafe as the whole situation felt, I couldn't help but feel some sort of warmness knowing that Isabelle was OK. She was shaken up, I could tell.

"Where are you going?" she managed to croak with a petrified expression on her face. _What was I meant to say? "Oh don't worry about me, I'm just going to run back into the  
death pit…See you soon though, maybe!" _No.  
I couldn't tell my twelve year old sister that I was going back into possibly the scariest  
place on the planet.

"I'm just going to meet Katie in the car park because she has a mobile phone, so I can call mum and get her to pick us up, okay?" I untruthfully reassured her. Taking baby steps towards the sports  
field exit, backing away from her – as far as I was concerned, she was safe and that's all  
that mattered and as far as I knew she thought I was going to be safe and was therefore happy which meant I was happy.

Once I saw Isabelle being guided away further onto the field by one of the teaching  
assistants I discreetly slipped back through the gates, making sure nobody saw me do  
so. It'd all kicked off during our History lesson. 's got called out of class by the ahead  
and the next thing I knew we were all being hauled out of the classroom like sheep.  
I felt lucky that my History class was so near a fire escape and I could get out quickly when I eventually heard why we had to abandon the building.

But then it dawned on me…

Not _everyone _was safe, which is why I was heading straight back into the building.  
I didn't know where to start…Where were my friends?  
As I heaved one of the jammed fire escapes open and entered through the technology corridor I tried to think about who had what lesson.

The first person that sprung to mind was Katie, of course, my best friend since forever.  
I was pretty sure she had Dance which was on the bottom floor, very close to the centre point of  
the school. Was it too risky to go and find her?  
_God, I hope she's safe… _

My head then span and I remembered Lou, shit…what lesson was he in?  
Maths? No. Ah, come on Lauren, think! What lesson is Louis usually in when you're scheduled for  
History? I took a silent jog down the technology corridor while hearing gunshots and screams echo from random directions in the school. It would've been scary but it'd been going on for 10 minutes now.

It's the weirdest feeling to know that you could be standing right underneath where your best friend has been shot to the ground and not even know.

It felt like I was walking down the technology corridor for ages but when I eventually reached the end, I probably witnessed the most haunting sight of my entire life. Blood.  
Blood stained on the floor, smudged lightly on the walls, it was coming from and leading to every direction. How was I suppose to know which routes a safe route?

"Lauren…Lauren what are you doing here?" I heard a familiar voice yell as I span round, it was Zayn.

Zayn had been one of my good friends for a while now, I'd met him through Louis in Year 7 and discovered he was such a nice and mellow guy, despite how undeniably attractive he was.  
Like most people, he too looked shaken up and his cheeks were tear-stained,  
"I could ask you the same question!" I breathed pulling him in for a hug before quickly letting go. His breathing was heavy and he was tense.

"You need to go…" he eventually said, guiding me back up the Technology corridor, "it's not safe…"  
I dug my heels against the cheap lino floor and held my ground,  
"where are the others? Have you been with anyone" I asked, not being able to think straight enough to ask anything else. He gave a shrug but then quickly morphed it into a nod,  
"I overheard talking to Chloe and he's arranged for the school bus to take all the students on the field to the schools off-campus sports centre. Everyone's already out there, you need to go now and get on that bus" he panted and began pushing me confidently towards the fire exit again.

"Wait…if everyone's out there then what're you doing in here?" I said confused as he shoved me gently outside. He looked at me with his dark and mysterious yet friendly eyes and gave a unreadable expression,  
"Sorry Lauren…" he said gently before grabbing the fire escape door and yanking it shut so I couldn't enter the building again.

Sure enough as I reached the school carpark, I saw the huge school bus there along with two other coaches boarding children of all Year groups. I stared in a daze, confused before I let my eyes rapidly search the swarming carpark for a familiar face.

_Katie? Louis? Zayn?  
Chloe? Niall? Helen?  
Liam?  
Anybody? _


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: **

My head, I must've fallen asleep.  
As the coach smoothly stopped, my senses started to become apparent once again.  
As my hearing re-activated itself, the buzz of people and panic was all that I could hear  
and even though my vision was blurry, I could see almost the whole coach shoving themselves  
towards the doors to see if any of their loved-ones had made it onto the following coaches.

Urgh…falling asleep had made everything seem like such a daze. I lifted my head from the back of  
my chair and slowly followed the crowd of people that had now dispersed from the doors and  
were flooding onto the grounds of the sports centre.

_My phone…_ It suddenly dawned on me that I should probably check it,  
pulling it out of my pockets; I gave it a quick glance as I noticed the second coach  
travel through the centres gate. Four missed calls.

**Mum  
Mum  
Mum  
Dad **

Well, that was unexpected. And no, it's not even sarcasm. Mum and Dad are what I like to  
class at workaholics, they're constantly flying overseas and across the globe to  
seal business deals and expand on our family firm.  
**'Rose Ltd.' ****  
**I know what you're thinking, some kind of flower shop – right?  
Wrong. Rose is a business that specializes in interior design for retail parks and fashion merchandise shops like 'Top Shop' and 'River Island'. Although, they're both frequently visiting the states to try and win access to the more exclusive brands like Versace and Louis Vuitton…but whatever. My main point is they're not around a lot.

As I stood on the curb, I watched as the second coach opened its doors and people in their dozens began pacing off, scanning the area for anyone they knew or were looking for.  
Of course I wasn't surprised to see Isabelle; I gave her hair a comforting scruff as she passed me with two of her friends and a parent. She didn't seem fazed in the slightest, just numbed.

The flood coming from the coach doors began to slow until the people were exiting were little to none, the pace of my heart began to pick up. _Where the fuck are you all? _I thought to myself, stuffing my hand into my pocket, retrieving my phone. I scrolled down my phone.

Who to call, who to call?  
Katie.  
_Ring, ring…ring, ring…__  
_C'mon pick up  
_ring, ring…ring, ring…__  
_"Katie, pick up the pone"  
_"Hi, it's Katie. Sorry I can't get to the phone right now __  
but if you leave your name and number and I'll be sure to get ba-" _

I hung up, I didn't want to hear her say  
_"I'll be sure to get back to you" __  
_because if I was being honest, I was losing hope that she ever would.

Deciding not to stand outside in torment, I strolled into the sports centres offices and for the first  
time I witnessed silence. Everybody has assembled on the tennis courts outside, which was probably  
where I should've been considering they were probably do head-checks and all of that jazz.  
But I needed quiet, I needed to think.

I sat down in one of the spectator boxes which looked down onto the Olympic-sized swimming pool  
which looked as though it was absolutely freezing and put my head in my hands. It'd been a  
hectic morning…a tragic morning…but I couldn't cry. There was too much to think about and  
crying just wasted needed energy.

Did Zayn know something that I didn't?  
I couldn't help but remember the expression on his face when he pushed me out of the  
technology corridor. It was like he knew something I didn't.  
Was he even being honest when he said that the others had gotten on a coach?  
He could've been, I mean there must still be coaches on their way right?  
Only two had left the school and arrived at the sports centre, each carrying around 160 pupils  
each. That's only 320 students out of 800, give or take a few.  
The gunman couldn't have shot down 480 kids, could they?

Just then, I heard the footsteps of people entering the swimming pool area below me. I ducked  
a little, attempting to remain unseen.  
"I've just got in contact with Steve, there's another 2 coaches on the way" I heard the voice of Mrs Turner, the head of the English department say in a monotone voice,  
"…And? What about after?" asked the voice of Mr Moore, deputy head teacher.

There was a silence with just the automatic pool cleaner and its constant hum keeping the room alive.

"There is no after…The two coaches on their way are the only  
coaches left" Mrs Turner said,  
"That can't be, that means one hundred and sixty kids have been…" Mr Moore began to say before letting his voice trail off,  
"Well, some were directly picked up by their parents before things began to get chaotic but the according to the paramedics and authorities at the scene, the death toll is definitely in its fifties and the reported injuries are just under fifteen"

Numbers began to violently appear and then reappear in my head…  
_  
800 kids in the entire school, _  
_320 kids already at the Sports Centre…One being my sister _  
_around 250 kids on their way…hopefully including my friends__  
That makes 570… __  
Another fifty odd dead…hopefully not including my friends…__  
__620__  
Just under 15 injured…635. __  
Leaving 165 people missing__  
Scary. _

With the frightening truth of what had actually just taken place hitting me, I ran outside.  
I needed air. But it wasn't what I got.  
The atmosphere had changed. There were people.  
Reporters. Journalists. Officers. Students. Parents.

I couldn't work out where to go. It was all so overwhelming until I  
felt a firm hand on my shoulder,  
"Lauren, c'mon…"

The clinking of the metal teaspoon against our thick mugs echoed in the kitchen as I removed the teabags from the tea and plopped them in the bin.  
There was a daunting silence in the kitchen, one too huge to shove aside.

"I can't believe you took me away from there" I hissed in a cold tone as  
I placed the mugs in front of my parents,  
"Isabelle, go upstairs and play sweetie" my mother instructed with a smile –  
as though everything was fine and dandy.  
Of course being the princess she was, Isabelle went and played.  
I hated how my parents treated her like she was six…she was fully capable of listening to  
a conversation about something serious. She'd just been in the middle of a shooting  
spree for fucksake.

"What did you want us to do Laulsy, just leave you at the Sports Centre? You looked as  
though you were going to pass out" my dad chuckled drinking his tea. Eurgh. He sickened me.  
They both did. How could they just play happy families when loads of  
parents…_better _parents than them, had just lost one, both if not all of their  
kids?

"I need some sleep" I eventually said, plodding out of the kitchen and into the living  
room, throwing all my weight onto our long corner sofa. _Why hadn't anyone __  
bothered to call me yet?__  
__

"Louis?" I groaned, fumbling for the tiny switch on the lamp in the living room.  
My phone had awaken me from my _'nap' _and the whole room was dark, the curtains  
were drawn and the house was silent with just the huge grandfather clock and the sound  
of my cat padding around the living room steering away silence.

"Louis…Wha-Why didn't you call sooner?" I yawned finally finding the light-switch,  
"I was on one of the coaches…" his usual chirpy voice explained,  
"We looked for you but you were gone – Zayn said that you definitely got on a coach so  
I thought maybe you just needed some time to reflect…Is Isabelle okay?" he asked considerately, his voice lowering a little. I could hear echoing voices in the background – some familiar, some not so much.

"Isabelle's fine…Others? Who else were you with? Where are you now?" I asked all at once, there were so many things I wanted to confirm and be reassured of, hearing my best friends voice  
after a whole day was a genuine godsend.

"Listen…Lauren, I need to go. I'm at the Roding Hospital…I'm not allowed phones in here.  
If you can make it down here within the next half hour though, that'd be brilliant. I'll  
explain when you get here. Ok?" he replied, pausing before he spoke. Something wasn't right.

"Lou, is everyone okay?" I quickly questioned again before he could hang up,  
"Just come and I'll explain, if not then I'll come over tomorrow. Listen Lauren, I really have to go…I'll  
call later" he quickly babbled before cutting off.

asleep. as


End file.
